Aftermath
by SkySoarFree
Summary: This takes place right after the episode Cutie Map Part 2. Unknown to every pony, Starlight Glimmer had an even sinister side, and Fluttershy alone with her was assaulted in the worse kind of way. When she tells RD about what happened to her, RD reacts badly and takes off, causing Fluttershy to do something extreme. Full summary in story. FlutterDash Flutter/noncon
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note** : This story takes place right after the episodes Cutie Map Part 1 and 2. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are in an established relationship, and are engaged to be married. Unknown to every pony, Starlight Glimmer had an even darker side, and Fluttershy alone with her was abused in the worse kind of way. When she tells her fiancée about what happened, Rainbow Dash freaks out and temporarily takes off, causing Fluttershy to do something dramatic. After everything that happened, will the Elements of Harmony be able to recover? Will Rainbow Dash be able to make up for the drastic results of her taking off? And, more importantly will Fluttershy be able to recover from this horrible event? (Warning: story contains description of sexual assault (but not the actual act), and self-harm (only in chapter one)). The majority of this story is the path to recovery after a sexual assault.

 **Author's Note** **2** : I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested or knows anyone that is interested send me a PM. Thanks!

 **Part 1**

It took Twilight a moment to figure out what had waken her. She'd been sleeping peacefully, in an actual bed, for the first time in days, and she had fallen into a deep slumber the moment her head had hit the pillow. It was a bonus that she didn't have to hear that annoying droning voice attempting to brainwash her and friends echoing in her mind.

"Twilight wake up" the voice whispered again, more persistently. It took the alicorn a moment to remember she was sharing a bed with her pink fur friend. The village didn't have many extra room, so the six of them had paired up. Rainbow Dash was of course with her fiancée, Fluttershy, AppleJack was rooming with Rarity, so that left her and Pinkie Pie. Which one might think was a bad thing, but actually wasn't, the caking loving pony was always quick to fall asleep after an adventure, and she was a sound sleeper, and a quiet bedmate, better than AppleJack who kicked or Rarity who insisted on having the bed a certain way.

"Hm?" Was all Twilight's sleep filled brain could come up with at the moment.

"It's Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they're fighting!" Pinkie Pie whispered in a voice too loud to actually be considered quiet anymore.

"Fight? Fluttershy?" Twilight questioned. She couldn't imagine their pink haired friend getting so worked up that's she'd be fighting in the middle of the night in borrowed room right next to her best friends.

"Well…" Pinkie Pie trailed off in a very Pinkie Pie manner, "From what I can hear Rainbow Dash is doing most of the fighting."

Then Twilight heard them, their voices were muffled, but with the paper thin walls, they could just make out what Rainbow Dash was saying.

"Stop saying you're sorry!" the voice in the other room did sound strangely angry, with another tone they weren't used to hearing in their rainbow haired friend's voice, panic.

The only response they could hear from Fluttershy was a quiet sob.

"Stop it!" their friend stout again. "Why would you even say that?!"

They heard Fluttershy stutter something, but couldn't make out her words.

"What'd ya think they're fighting about?" Pinkie Pie questioned suddenly inches away from Twilight's face.

"I don't know, they seemed fine when we said goodnight." Twilight flinched as she heard Rainbow Dash shout something she couldn't quite make out but sounded like a string of curse words then Fluttershy stutter something that sounded like her asking Rainbow Dash to calm down.

"Did they?" Pinkie Pie jumped to the floor, turning on the only light in the room, a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

"Well, Fluttershy did seem a little quiet." Twilight thought back about the yellowed fur pony, she had seemed a little off, but she'd chalked it up to her just being tired.

"Fluttershy is always quiet Twilight!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"I know that…" Twilight didn't finish her thought, a loud crash came Pegasus ponies' room. It sounded like some pony had thrown something. She wondered if the Pegasus pair always fought like this, Fluttershy was not the fighting type, but definitely was Rainbow Dash was, Twilight hoped Rainbow wasn't picking on their animal loving friend. She guessed she were going to find out, considering her and Pinkie Pie were already headed for the Cloudsdale flyers' room.

AppleJack and Rarity actually beat them to the room. The scene that greeted the princess was one of Fluttershy sobbing into AppleJack's neck in front of a thrown open window. Which, Twilight guessed was what had caused the crashing noise, and where Rainbow Dash had exited from.

"What happened?" Twilight questioned, looking to Rarity who was standing by pair looking back and forth between the scene in the room and the open window.

"Don't ask me" She flipped her hair like she tended to do when nervous or upset. "We just got here, just in time to see Rainbow Dash taking off, running from the mess she created, like always." Rarity stressed the word she and like always.

"It isn't her fault," Fluttershy sobbed defending her lover. It was her way to always defend the people she loved.

"Sugarcube, I'm sure you didn't do nothing to warrant all the shouting we heard." AppleJack pet her friend's mane in an attempt to calm her down.

"But I did!" Fluttershy choked, looking up, the snot from her nose mixing with the tears running down her face. She was obviously very upset.

"Did what?" Twilight questioned ignoring the glare from AppleJack.

"I was too weak," Fluttershy tried to bury her face in AppleJack's mane again, hiding her face.

"Darling, you are not weak, we've seen you make a full grown dragon cry, some weak pony could not have done that." Rarity fidgeted with her hair some more.

"No!" Fluttershy shouted one of her louder voices. "I am weak! I couldn't stop her. She said if I didn't do what she wanted she'd get you instead, so I had to… I couldn't let her hurt you… but I should have stop her. I shouldn't have been such a weak coward! I should have been stronger. "

"Me?" Rarity questioned pointing at herself unsure of what Fluttershy meant by you.

"What are you talking about sweetums?" AppleJack questioned, ignoring Rarity.

"Starlight Glimmer!" Fluttershy cried into AppleJack's hair. "She made me… I couldn't stop her… and Rainbow Dash was so upset… So upset! She's so mad… So upset at me! For not being strong enough… for letting her do those things to me… If I wasn't so weak, if I was only stronger… I could have stopped her… stopped her… not done what she said… not let her touch me like that…"

Twilight felt a sick feeling in her stomach as she started to realize what Fluttershy was saying. A look around the room told her that her friends were starting to catch on too, even Pinkie Pie was starting to get the crazed look she got when someone hurt someone she loved.

"Couldn't stop her from doing what?" Rarity was the first to get the courage to ask.

Fluttershy didn't answer, she just buried her head even deeper into AppleJack's mane, now silently sobbing.

"Made you do what?" AppleJack used her hoof to pull the yellow furred pony's face out of her mane. Fluttershy's eyes held a look of sorrow and terror that none of them would ever forget.

"She made me do… bedroom stuff…" Fluttershy didn't want to come out and say it, she couldn't come out and say it, it would make it too real, it was already awful enough. "Stuff you should only do with your special some pony. Stuff I was only supposed to do with Rainbow Dash." And that was it for Fluttershy, she couldn't take it anymore, the shocked looks on her friends' faces, the looks of horror and disgust, she just couldn't. She fell into herself, trying to burrow into the floor, covering her head with her front hoofs, sobbing into the floor.

The four elements of harmony were motionless for a few long seconds, all attempting to process what they'd just heard.

Rarity was the first to vocalize her response with a simple quiet, "no." She covered her mouth looking pale even for her, she fought the impulse to faint.

"What?" Was all Pinkie Pie could manage, even though she knew full well what her friend Fluttershy was saying. She could feel the air in her hair deflating. She was at lost to find anything happy at the moment.

Twilight couldn't say anything, she was too busy feeling the guilt she had no doubt she'd feel for the rest of her long life over what she'd let, made, happen to one of her best friends, to one of, no, to the kindest pony in Equestria.

AppleJack just said the most truthful thing she could think of, "It wasn't your fault honey." She couldn't understand why Fluttershy would blame herself for something so horrible, and she did not understand why Rainbow Dash would shout at the timid pony after hearing the news, that's she'd just take off, leaving her fiancée alone feeling like she'd done something wrong.

"It was!" Fluttershy continued to cry into the floor. No pony made a move to stop her, no pony having any idea how you comfort a pony after what had happened to her.

"She just kept saying how I had to be a good filly, do what she said, or she'd hurt you ponies, that she'd make you ponies do it instead, so I… so I did what she said," Fluttershy stuttered. "She used her magic, to… to hold me down… I should have been quicker… I shouldn't have went back into the house after I found out she had our cutie marks…. I should have been braver, less stupid. I shouldn't have let this happen!" Fluttershy lifted her hand then brought it back to the floor hard enough to cause a loud bang, attempting to erase the memories from her mind.

"No, don't do that sweetie." AppleJack moved in pulling Fluttershy up from the floor into her arm.

"Why not?" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Because we love you, and don't want you to suffer anymore." AppleJack believed her words but did not for the life of her know how they were going to fix their friend's suffering.

"Yes," the other ponies the room chimed in.

"I'm not worth it," Fluttershy's voice was almost too tiny to hear, but years of being her friends had given them all Fluttershy hearing, so they couldn't made out her shyest voice. AppleJack held her tighter at those words.

"You are worth it!" Rarity practically shouted, stressing all her words.

"You are worth a thousand worth it's!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"Oh Fluttershy," Twilight knelt down in front of her friend, so they were eye level. "You're worth ten times the love we give you. You are our best friend, an element a harmony, kindness, and you are one of the greatest ponies I'll ever meet. You are worth it."

Fluttershy eyes welled up with even more tears are her dear friend's words, she wanted them to be true, she did, but…

"Then why did Rainbow Dash leave?" she questioned softly.

There again was silence in the room, none of the ponies knowing what Rainbow Dash was thinking, and how she could have walked, flown out, at such a moment.

"I don't know," Twilight finally answered truthfully. "But, I'm going to find out." With that she stood up, extending her wings, giving her friend's one last pleading glance to take care of Fluttershy, before taking off into the night.

She could hear her dear friend's sobs as she flew away.

####

It turned out Rainbow Dash was not hard to find, Twilight just had to fly up, and she soon heard the shouting.

So she flew up and up, towards her screaming friend, who seemed to just be shouting out in frustration as she destroyed the clouds so high in the sky that they were normally left alone.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight shouted when she thought she was in hearing range, but Dash didn't seem to or want to hear her.

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted again, this time gasping for breath, the rainbow haired pony had flown so high up that there was less oxygen in the air. Twilight didn't think she'd ever been this high up, and she felt slightly dizzy as she looked down and landed on a cloud.

"What do you want Twilight?" Rainbow Dash struck a cloud close to the one holding the Princess.

"What are you doing, Rainbow?" Twilight gulped, trying to get enough air in her lungs. She'd read about this Pegasus ponies had special lungs that allowed them to fly at high altitude, with enough practice, which she obviously did not have.

"I'm making a clear sky, what does it look like I'm doing?" Dash snapped. She didn't know what she was doing, she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

"Why?" Twilight managed. She began focusing on her breathing so she didn't pass out.

"Because, what else would I be doing?" Rainbow Dash destroyed another cloud, ignoring the obvious distress her friend was in. "Should I be with Fluttershy?"

"Yes!" Twilight felt anger, it helped with the dizziness.

"Why?" The blue Pegasus felt tears stinging her eyes, she shook them away. "Why? Why should I be with Flutters? I couldn't even protected her from one fucking cult leading, brainwashing unicorn, how am I going to help her? I couldn't protect her Twilight! I didn't stop this from happening! I did nothing! I might as well have let it happen!"

"You did not let this happen," Twilight felt her own guilt washing over her again. Rainbow Dash might not have cause it to happen, but she sure as hell did. "I'm the one that told her to do it. I'm the one that put her in the situation. If anyone is to blame, it is me."

"You did put her in the situation." Rainbow Dash felt her anger switching from the cloud to her purple friend, it was so much easier to be angry that some pony else than herself. "Why would you do that? Why would you let Fluttershy go up against a whole cult by herself?!"

"I… I don't know…" Twilight answered truthfully, starting to feel the strain of low oxygen again.

"I was stupid, we all should have known better, Starlight Glimmer was fucking crazy, we all knew that!" Dash felt her vision going red, which normally was a sign that she needed to take off, get away from whatever was making her anger boil, but not today, not with this, someone had to pay, and Starlight Glimmer was not going to be found anytime soon, so some pony had to take her place.

"I know," Twilight's voice strained against the wind that had started to pick up. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Rainbow Dash scream. "Sorry? Tell that to Fluttershy! See if that helps! Or maybe we can just use the fucking magic of friendship. That help's rape victim's right?"

Twilight gasped slightly at the word she'd been avoiding thinking let alone saying.

"What? You don't like that word? Is it too harsh for your princess reality? Rape, because that's what happened, Fluttershy was raped" The words coming out of Rainbow Dash's mouth had a life of their own know, and she couldn't stop them even if she wanted too.

"You can't deal with the fact that your stupid selfish decision may have ruined Fluttershy forever?"

"Fluttershy isn't ruined." Twilight knew she couldn't reason with her friend when she was so upset, but she couldn't help herself from trying. "How could you say that?"

"That isn't want I meant!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "What she is, was, how can she ever go back? How can we ever go back? How can I ever go back?"

"This isn't about you Rainbow Dash." Twilight knew she was giving advice she couldn't keep, because her own mind was thinking about her own failure, but she had to snap Rainbow Dash out of it.

"Yeah, I know that!" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"Then why are you up here having a temper tantrum?" Twilight was starting to lose her sympathy for her friend.

"Why are you up here? Shouldn't you be ruining someone else's life?" Dash shot back.

"Really Rainbow Dash, you don't think I feel bad enough about what happened? You don't think I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life?" Twilight tried to fight the tears forming in her eyes. She knew her friend was just speaking out of anger but it still stung.

"No! I don't think you feel bad enough, none of us do, how could we? We weren't the ones who were raped!" Rainbow Dash started flying in a zigzag motion, she was so angry she felt like she was going to explode. She hadn't been this pissed in years.

"Fine Rainbow, if it will make you feel better, I'll take the blame, I'll take all the blame," Twilight knew as a princess it actually was her responsibility. "Now what?"

Rainbow Dash felt her anger boil over and did something then that she hadn't done for a long time, she lunged, tackling her friend, starting a fight.

Twilight was not ready for the attack and as she rolled to push her friend off they both fell off the cloud. Rainbow Dash quickly reorient herself, but in the time it took Twilight to figure which way was up and which way was down, the blue pony was already on top of her, fighting her and they both spiraled towards the ground. Twilight tried to block the punches that her friend dealt, mostly unsuccessfully, but attempted to wrestle her off, but did not try to land any blows. She knew her friend had to work out her anger, and on some level she felt like she deserved it. She only did one thing on the way down, right before they hit the ground, she twisted so she'd take the brunt of the ground. She knew from experience that it would hurt, but she'd survive it. She'd dented a mountain, she could take hitting the ground. Which they did, hard, knocking the wind out of her lungs, but seeming to do nothing to the rainbow hair pony, who quickly got up and started screaming at the houses around them. Calling out the ponies that lived in them, daring them to come out and face her, to face what they had allowed to happen.

#####

The three non-flying ponies huddled around their dear friend, trying to comfort her as she silently shook, trying to do anything they could to comfort her, the only thing they could do to help. The loud boom, and sudden shake of the floor started them all, making even Fluttershy get up to peer out the window. What they saw was a Twilight Sparkles laying on her back in a small crater, seeming dazed but okay, and Rainbow Dash standing in the street all the hair on her back standing up, ears back, as she screamed at the rows of houses.

"Come out you cowards!" She screamed. "Come out and face what you let happen!"

Fluttershy couldn't take the sight, she sank down to the ground and covered her head again.

"Gosh darn her," AppleJack muttered to herself, knowing the flying pony probably better than any of them besides of course Fluttershy.

"Watch her," she whispered to the two, before leaving to stop her idiot friend.

"What?" Rainbow Dash continued to scream. Lights were turning on in the houses, and she could see some ponies peering out their windows. "No one want to face me? Is everyone in this town cowards? It is bad enough you all allowed yourselves to be brainwashed, but you also left a monster in control? Did she fuck anyone else in this worthless town? Did she take anyone else's fiancée?"

Rainbow Dash stomped her hooves pacing between the houses, "Did she rape any pony else in this stupid village?!"

"That's enough RD," AppleJack carefully stepped in front of her friend. "Screaming at them isn't gonna do nothing."

"They deserve to hear this!" Dash screamed.

"I know," AppleJack agreed. "But it ain't gonna do a thing, it ain't gonna make anything better."

"But…" Rainbow Dash said in a sudden small voice, "I don't know what else to do…. I don't know how to fix this…"

"You ain't gonna fix this Dash, at least not right away, and you definitely will get nowhere screaming into you the night. You need to be with Fluttershy. She needs you."

"I don't know what to do…" Dash felt tears coming to her eyes again.

"No one does RD, but we're gonna have to figure it out as we go, okay?"

Rainbow Dash nodded looking at the ground.

"Good, now let's get ya back to Fluttershy, she needs to know that this is not her fault and you still care about her. You do still care about her right?"

"Of course I do!" Rainbow was shocked that anyone would even think she didn't love Fluttershy, that she could ever stop loving her.

"Well, you're doing a bad job showing it." AppleJack nodded at Twilight who had managed to get back on her feet and had made her way over to her friends.

"I know…" Rainbow Dash kicked at the dirt. "Sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to almost murder you…"

"Murder?" AppleJack muttered, but dropped it.

"No worries, I'm Alicorn tough." Twilight knew she was going to be sore for a couple of days but she'd be fine.

Rainbow Dash couldn't spare even a chuckle as she turned towards the small house they were sharing. No one expected a panic Rarity to come bolting out of the house.

"Twilight!" She screamed. "Fluttershy needs you now!"

#####

As soon as AppleJack had left the room Fluttershy could not take it any longer. Everyone was upset, Rainbow Dash was shouting on the street, calling her a coward, which was exactly what she felt like, a coward. If she been less of a wimp, she could have gotten their cutie marks, and gotten them out of there before Starlight Glimmer had been able to hurt her, to use her. God, she just felt so dirty, the three showers she'd managed to take felt like they'd done nothing, she could still feel her skin crawl, and the worst however was the taste she could still feel in her mouth, she had to get rid of that disgusting taste. Before her two friends could stop her, she was up, running into the bathroom and locking the door behind her.

"Fluttershy?" Her friends quickly followed. Rarity lightly knocking on the door.

"I just need a minute," Fluttershy lied. She opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste. She pushed a large amount of paste onto the brush, wetted it, before violently being to brush her teeth. She used at much force as she could, quickly tasting blood, but ignoring it. She just wanted her mouth to feel clean again.

"Fluttershy?" Rarity tried again. "Do please come out? Let us help?"

"Are you brushing your teeth?" Pinkie Pie shouted. "Seems like an odd time for that."

"Shush," Rarity scolded. "I'm sure she has her reasons."

"Oh…" Pinkie Pie could feel her hair deflate even more.

"I'm fine," Fluttershy talked through the paste in her mouth. It wasn't enough. She rinsed the toothbrush off, looking for something else to get the dirt out of her mouth. Soap might help, she thought to herself. Grabbing the bar, and rubbing her brush against it until it was coated. She then began brushing her teeth again as hard as she could. The soap tasted awful, and it burned in the small cuts in her gums but she ignored the pain. She brushed till her hoof hurt, ignoring her friends' pleas to open the door, but it still wasn't enough. She threw down the brush in disgust, it wasn't strong enough. She eyed the bar of soap again before picking it up and applying it directly to her teeth. She would get them clean soon enough.

"Fluttershy, dear, if you don't open this door soon I'm afraid we're going to have to break it down." Rarity was starting to really worry, she could hear Fluttershy doing something in the bathroom, but she was not sure what.

"Please come out Fluttershy," Pinkie Pie begged. "I'll make your favorite lemon cake."

"No," Fluttershy thought to herself. "No" this is not enough. She threw the soap against the wall before opening the cabinet again, looking for anything to help. There was a bottle of mouth wash, which she grabbed drinking it all, it burned but it didn't help.

"Fluttershy?" Rarity panicked. "We need to get this door open now," she spoke to Pinkie Pie.

"Oh it," Pinkie Pie pushed Rarity to the side, getting ready to ram the door.

Fluttershy gave up on the medicine cabinet, it had nothing that could help, nothing that could get the dirt out of her mouth, nothing that could get the taste out, nothing that could help her forget what happened. She kicked open the cabinet under the sink, inside were several large bottles. She pulled out the one she recognized, some chemical used to clean bathroom. Well, if it can clean toilets than it can clean my mouth, right? She thought to herself. It would get the dirt out of her mouth, and it would definitely get rid of the taste. She pulled off the top and tilted the bottle up to her mouth. This would fix her problem….

Rarity and Pinkie Pie made it into the room right as Fluttershy had finished most of the bottle. By that time the pain was so intense that she dropped the bottle and fell over onto her side.

"Oh my god!" Rarity scream, picking up the now empty bottle. "She didn't… she couldn't… how much did she…"

"We have to assume she drank it all," Pinkie Pie took over. "Go get Twilight," She ordered. "Now!" she screamed when Rarity hesitated. Pinkie Pie then turned her full attention to her friend as she pulled the baking powder out of her hair along with a glass, she was always prepared. She mixed a large amount of the powered with water from the sink and leaned down to her friend.

"Fluttershy, I need you to drink this," she commanded. She'd taken enough babysitting classes, she knew the worst thing to do was to make her vomit, and that she had to dilute to the chemicals in her stomach. Fluttershy did not respond, but a white foamy substance was starting to form around her mouth.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie shouted. This got the mare's attention, at least a little. "Drink this!" she held the cup up to yellow pony's mouth.

"Sorry…" Fluttershy voice was so raw.

"No sorries, just drinking!" Pinkie Pie pushed the glass closer and Fluttershy finally took a sip. It seemed like forever before their friends made it up to the bathroom, but by the time they did Pinkie Pie had managed to get her to drink the whole glass.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Rainbow Dash sobbed as she ran to her fiancée's side. Fluttershy looked at her eye's rolling back in her head.

"We have to do something! We have to get her to a doctor!" Dash panicked. She picked her mare friend up and went to go towards the door.

"No!" Twilight ordered, finally taking control. "There are no doctors near enough that we can get to quickly enough."

"Then what are we going to do?" Dash shouted.

Twilight didn't respond, and she formed her plan in her head. The first thing she did was freeze her friend inside a small time bubble. Something she'd read about but never tried. It kept whatever was in the small pink bubble frozen in time for as long as she could hold the spell, which she did not think was very long.

"What did you do?" Rainbow Dash cried.

"I stopped time for her." Twilight answered as quickly as she could. "Now I have to take up to the Crystal City."

"Why the Crystal City?" AppleJack question. "Manehattan is closer."

"Yes, but they don't have any pony I can link to, I've never teleported this far before, but I know my brother, we're connected on some level, if I can focus on him, I should be able to get to the city, where hopefully the doctors can help."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Rainbow Dash moved next to her lover.

"No Rainbow, I don't have enough power, I don't even know if I can do this, we'll have to meet you there."

Rainbow Dash looked like she was going to argue, but AppleJack put her arm around her pulled in her back.

"I'll fly there, I'll meet you soon," Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Go," AppleJack told the Princess.

Twilight gave them one last nod before closing her eyes and concentrating on her brother as hard as she could hoping against hope that her plan would work, that she'd be able to save her friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note** : Originally this story was only going to be 4 parts, but it looks like it is going to be 5 to 6 parts, and Discord has managed to work his way into the story… Anyway, thanks for reading!

 **Author's Note** **2** : I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested or knows anyone that is interested send me a PM. Thanks!

 **Part 2**

Years of training to be a member of the palace guards had taught Shining Armor to be ready for practically anything; to be ready for any situation. So a pony randomly teleporting into your bedroom while you and your princess wife slept peacefully in bed, wasn't as big of a shocker as it might have been for other ponies. The shocker for him, as he jumped out of bed and quickly moved towards the unexpected guest, was the look of pure terror on his sister's face and package she carried.

"Twilight?" Cadence was out of bed and next to her husband almost as quickly as him.

"No time," Twilight gasped. The trip has taken most of her magic and she was barley holding on to the time bubble she had her friend held in.

"Doctor… hospital… now!"

The royal couple was quick to action.

"Time bubble?" Cadence questioned.

"I don't know how much longer I can…" Twilight paused as Cadence leaned over touching her horn to her sister-in-law's horn. Twilight felt a warm tingle wash over her and her magical energy increase. Cadence was using Twilight's love for her friend to power her own magic to transfer it to the purple princess temporarily increasing her power.

"Thank you." Twilight felt instantly better.

"No problem." Cadence responded; the urgency gone for at least a moment.

"What happened?" Shining Armor questioned. He looked over the precious package his sister was carrying.

"She drank poison, she needs medical attention right away." Twilight left out the part that she'd poisoned herself. She was sure they'd get to that later.

"What did she drink?" Cadence questioned.

"Some sort of cleaning agent."

"Okay, I'll fly to the hospital and let them know you're coming," Cadence flapped her wings once before heading out the nearest window flying as fast as she could.

"Let's go!" Shining Armor ran toward the door.

They didn't talk on the way to the hospital, they were too busy using all their breath running, but Shining Armor had so many question in his head the most important one being, what the heck had happened to his sister and her friend.

Luckily for everyone the hospital was not far from the palace and the nurses and doctors were standing outside the door waiting for them with a stretcher.

"She drank some sort of cleaning agent?" A unicorn doctor questioned as Twilight carefully lowered her friend on the mobile bed still in the bubble.

"Yes, something used to clean bathroom," Twilight answered. "I also think she drank a bottle of mouth wash."

"How much of the cleaning agent?" The doctor asked as they all started to move inside. He was trying to figure out the best way for them to react once the magic was gone from his patient.

"I don't know, probably an average size bottle, and most of it was gone by the time she was done…"

"What happened to cause this? A spell?" They all moved into a large open room, where nurses has several large machines with long tubing ready.

"No spell," Twilight answered truthfully. "She… um… was…" She didn't like stuttering in front of these many ponies, especially her brother and sister-in-law, all of them just standing there, waiting for her to answer.

"She was upset and drank it," she finally managed. She could hear Candace's small gasp, but the medical professionals seemed unfazed.

"Okay," the doctor nodded picking up one of the long plastic tubes that would be used to pump his patient's stomach. "Anything else we should know? Any other medical information?"

Twilight stared at him for a moment before looking down at her hoofs, she had to tell them, and they had to know what they were dealing with.

"And she was sexually assaulted by a female unicorn…"

She heard her brother gasp at this news, but didn't turn back to face either of her family members.

The doctor's face did change slightly at this news, but he quickly composed himself. "Okay, as soon as you release your spell I'm going to need you, Princess Cadence, and Sir Armor to leave and go wait in the waiting room, so we can work, understand your Highness?"

"Yes," Twilight nodded.

"Okay, release the spell… now."

As soon as Twilight releases the bubble her friend's entire body jolted back into reality. She gulped for air, confused to where she was and why her insides felt like them were on fire. Twilight wanted help her, comfort her, she stepped towards her friend only to be pulled back by strong hooves.

"No Twily," Her brother held her tightly. "We need to let to doctors work."

She knew he was right, and with one last look at her suffering friend she ran from the room.

#####

"Okay, so I sent two pony pengasi to meet Rainbow Dash midflight, assuming she's flying here on her own," Shining Armor paced back and forth in front of his sister and wife.

"She is," Twilight didn't look up from the spot on the floor she's been staring at for the last hour.

"And we sent the one royal carriage to pick up Pinkie Pie, Rarity and AppleJack," the guard was mostly talking to himself. He needed to be doing something to stop himself from thinking too much.

"We sent the other carriage to pick up the specialists from Canterlot," he nodded to himself.

"What else needs to be done?"

"Nothing honey," Cadence got up and rubbed her husband's back. "We just have to wait and see what happens." She tried to smile encouragingly when he gave her a pained look.

"Twilight is there anything you need?" she questioned looking towards her fellow princess.

'Make it so this never happened!' Twilight wanted to scream, but instead she just shook her head.

"This wasn't your fault, you know that right?" Cadence moved from her husband to her sisters' side gently placing a hoof on her shoulder. They had heard her story earlier, and both couldn't believe that something this awful could happen in Equestria, that there could be a pony that evil in their land. But there was, and this had happened, now they had to deal with it.

"Yeah, you keep saying that…" Twilight still did not look up. She couldn't believe them. She had been the one that decided to go to that stupid village, she'd forced Fluttershy to go when she obviously hadn't wanted to go, she'd forced Fluttershy to pretend to be brainwashed, forced her to walk right into Starlight Glimmer's evil hooves. She'd done all that and it was all her fault.

Shining Armor took the empty seat next to her and placed his hoof on her other shoulder. As a leader of the guard he knew all too well the pain of making a seemingly logical decision that ended tragically. It was the curse of being a leader.

They sat quietly for an unknown period of time before the click of hoof steps caught all their attention. It was the same doctor who had been there when they'd brought Fluttershy in hours ago.

They all got up to greet him with worried looks.

He quickly gave both princesses a bow before standing up straight to face them. He cleared his throat hesitating, knowing his news to be both good and bad and not sure how the rulers would react.

"It looks like we were able to get all the poison from her system, luckily she was given something quickly to help neutralize the poison and Princess Twilight Sparkles froze her before anything could hit her blood stream, which means her liver will be fine. Which makes her extremely lucky." He cleared his throat again rubbing the back of his sore neck with his hoof, now for the bad news

"However, her mouth, throat, esophagus, and stomach have all sustained second degree chemical burns, which given the strong chemical she drank could be worse, but also means we had to incubate her with tubing down her throat into her stomach with a balloon pouch in her stomach keeping the organ expanded to prevent scar tissue. We also had to place tubing into the airway to ensure easy breathing and that scar tissue does not cover her trachea. The tubing will have to stay in place for at least three days to ensure minimal scar tissue. The Ear Nose and Throat specialist doctor arrived shortly ago, and she is looking over the patient as we speak."

The doctor closed his eyes for a moment wishing he didn't have to go into the rest of the pony's injuries. The shocked looks on the ponies in front of him were enough to make him want to run.

"As for the cause of this incident," he didn't want to say rape. "We found trauma to the genital area, the skin around the area was raw with some slight tearing and bruising. There was trauma to the tissue in the vagina," he cleared his throat before continuing their findings. "And to the rectum, but stitches were not needed. There were also several deep laceration on the inside of her thighs, which appear to be bite marks, but they did not warrant stitches. We gave her a tetanus and rabies vaccine shot just to be careful. We also gave her a prophylactic medicine for treatment of STI's. And we had a nurse who specializes sexual assault perform a rape kit on her, but it looks like the patient had bathed after the incident."

Twilight closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, as she suddenly felt like the floor had been pulled out from under her. She knew she had to keep it together, she was a princess, and she couldn't hyperventilate in front of other ponies, but for some reason her lungs seemed to be lacking oxygen.

"How is she now?" she heard Candace question the doctor.

"She is still unconscious and we'd like to keep her that way as long as possible. The tubing she'd connected to will be very uncomfortable, and she's going to want to pull it out the second she wakes up. It is better for her to sleep for now."

'Breath normal' Twilight thought to herself as she tried to pay attention. It was like she'd somehow forgotten how one is supposed to get oxygen in their lungs and to push CO2 out.

"Can we see her?" Candace started to question when the doctor interrupted her.

"Princess Twilight, are you okay?" he question the purple pony before shouting, "Nurse!"

"I'm fine…" Twilight managed a lie, she tried to take a step forward only to find the ground was moving for some reason. She felt her vision start to fade out around the sides.

"Princess, please sit down," the doctor rushed to her side. "I think you're in shock."

"I'm fine…" Twilight stated again before everything went black.

####

Rainbow Dash had been flying for hours, her rainbow trail following behind her as she flew in the sonic rainboom. She'd flown over Manehatton what was probably hours ago, but she hadn't stopped to rest. She had to get to the Crystal City, she had to get to Fluttershy.

'I really messed this up…' the rainbow pony thought to herself, 'like really, really messed this up.' She shook her head trying to erase her own word and actions at hearing Fluttershy's horrible news.

She hadn't been mad at Fluttershy when she'd told her, between sobs, how could she be mad at her? It obviously wasn't her fault. No she'd been mad at every pony else. She'd wanted to rip Starlight Glimmer's stupid bucking head off and throw it at the stupid brainwashed idiots of the stupid town they'd just saved. She wanted to scream at Twilight and her friends for deciding to come to the town, for letting Fluttershy walk into a now obvious trap. But mostly she was mad at herself, for not protecting the one she loved most in all of the Equestria. How could she let this happen?

So, when she'd been shouting, she'd been shouting at herself, yelling at her dumb self. But, she should have known better, she should have known how Fluttershy would take her reaction. The way she always reacted when ponies around her get upset, she'd blame herself, no matter the situation, she somehow always thought it is her fault, and there was always something she could have done to stop whatever had just happen. Years of bullying and shitty parents had made her believe that when people were shouting it was probably because of something she'd done. Rainbow Dash knew that about her, how many times had she comforted her because of that? But instead of acting like a loving fiancée she'd lost her cool, and when she's seen the look in her lover's eyes, she bolted, like she always did when things got to rough, like a coward. She felt tears forming in her eyes but willed them way by focusing on flying faster. She had to get to Fluttershy.

She looked up and in the distance ahead of her were two Pegasus ponies flying towards her at a speed almost matching hers, she recognized the blue haired Pegasus as Flash Century, a guard from the Crystal Empire.

"Rainbow Dash!" he shouted when they were in hearing distance.

"Yeah?" Dash replied not changing her pace as they crossed paths. The two guards did quick U-turns and sped up to match her speed, flying to either side of her.

"We were sent by Princess Cadence," Flash struggled to keep the mare's pace. Even with his speed training he was having trouble keeping up with the rainbow haired pony. "To make sure you arrive safely to the Crystal Empire." Flash noticed his fellow guard falling behind. It was fine, only one of them had to keep up with the Element of Loyalty.

"Is Fluttershy okay?" Dash was tried from flying but planned on keeping up this pace to she got to her fiancée.

"Sorry, I have no other information than she arrived with Princess Twilight and was taken immediately to the hospital." Flash had only briefly met the pink haired pony a few times before, but from what he'd heard about the kind pony she was a special kind of pony, and he hoped she was okay.

"Well, let's hurry up and get there than." Rainbow focused on flying even faster.

####

"What?" Twilight shot up from the bed she'd been laying it, taking a moment to remember where she was and what had happened.

"Twily," Shining Armor gently touched her hoof. "You're in the hospital, you passed out, are you okay?"

"I passed out?" Twilight squeaked. "Princesses don't pass out!" She threw the covers off and turned to get out of bed but her brother stood in the way.

"Don't worry sis, the doctor put the reason for losing conscience was over use of magic, which probably was a large factor. Also, I'm guessing you haven't slept well in days, and haven't been eating, right?"

"I'm fine, I need to check on Fluttershy, is Rainbow Dash here yet?" Twilight gave her brother a frustrated look when he did not move.

"No, you weren't out that long and by my estimates, even if she flies in the sonic rainboom the entire trip, she still has a few more hours 'till she gets here. Every pony else should get here in probably 8 hours give or take."

"Okay, but I still want to check on my friend," Twilight motion for Shining Armor to move.

"Not until you eat a decent meal, Fluttershy isn't going anywhere and Candace is with her." Shining Armor used his magic to put a large tray of obviously not hospital food in front of his sister. The hospital staff had gone all out when they found out the meal was for a princess.

"Fine," Twilight pouted, realizing that she should probably eat something even if she didn't feel hungry and knowing that Fluttershy was at least not alone. She used her magic to take a large bite of what was probably delicious vegetable pasta that she hardly tasted.

Her brother watched her eat a few more large bites before speaking again.

"When you're done eating the team of doctors treating Fluttershy want to have a meeting with you to discuss her treatment plan." The guard used his magic to move the cup of water, motioning that his sister should take a drink.

She got the hint and finished the water in several large gulps. "Okay I ate, let's go see the doctors."

"Um, Twily, I'm not sure how to say this, but um, when was the last time you bathed?"

Twilight knew if she had to think about the answer than it had been too long. She sighed, not wanting to waste time, but knowing a quick bath would make her feel better.

####

Candace hummed softly to the young pony lying in the bed next to her, she looked so unnatural with all the tubes and machines around her. The yellow pony had stirred earlier but one of the nurses watching over her had quickly injected a shot in the IV connected to her front hoof lulling her back into a deep dreamless sleep.

The princess didn't think her friend had any idea she was there, but wasn't going to leave her side. She hadn't left when various doctors had come and gone all assuring her that her presence wasn't necessary, and that the younger pony would remember nothing. Until her friends got there she was going nowhere.

A green Pegasus pony entered the room, with two crystal pony nurses at her side, she picked the clipboard at the end of the bed up, flipping through its pages. It took her a moment to realize the princess was there.

"Oh, sorry, your majesty," she gave a quick bow.

"It is fine," Candace gave her a small smile. She wasn't a fan of formality but knew it was important.

"My name is Dr. Bluesky, I just arrived in your beautiful city as the Pegasus specialist," she blushed slightly, never have meeting a princess before.

"Then please do your work," Candace smiled warmly. She continued her humming as the doctor looked over the pages on the clipboard.

The doctor frowned slightly at something she read before approaching the patient. She motioned for one of the nurses to open the patient's mouth while she handed the other a flashlight to shine into the yellow pegasus' mouth. Her frown deepened as she confirmed what the chart read.

"We're going to need a full MRI scan of the back of the patient's throat and lungs as soon as possible," she told the nurses.

"What's wrong?" Candace questioned.

"It is probably nothing your majesty," the doctor wrote something on the clipboard. "However, I'm sure you know that Pegasus ponies lungs are slight different than other ponies lungs, because of the necessary oxygen levels we need while flying. I just want to ensure the patient's trachea hasn't been scarred too severely that flying would be difficult for her in the future. Especially since her chart says her wings are slightly underdeveloped as it is, which is amazing considering all the feats I've read about her doing in the papers, keeping up with other Pegasus ponies must have been extremely hard."

"I hope that's not the case," Candace hadn't known that about the yellow pony, only that she disliked flying.

"Me too your majesty," the doctor gave a small bow before exiting the room, the nurses following her.

####

"How many doctors does she have?" Twilight whispered to her brother as they entered the large room where all the doctors had lined up to meet her. They all bowed as she walked by, and took the large seat towards the back of the room.

"Candace ordered the best, this is the best," her brother shrugged.

Twilight tried to remember all the doctors' names as they introduced themselves and stated their specialties, there was her general doctor, the pony that had been there when she'd been admitted, Dr. Heartfelt. There was the earth pony ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor, a Dr. Plentiful, and the Pegasus specialist pony, Dr. Bluesky. Then there was the earth pony psychologist, Dr. CandyCakes and her coworker another a specialist that dealt specifically with sexual assault victims, a green haired unicorn pony called Dr. Seaweed.

When the doctors were done with introductions they all took turns describing their plans for Fluttershy's treatment, and Twilight had to admit even to her standards, they'd thought of everything. Dr. Candycakes even suggested group therapy with all the elements of harmony to help them deal with such a traumatic issue.

"It sounds good," Twilight nodded to them when they were done. It had been too much information for her, and she wasn't a doctor, she had never dealt with such an issue before, and she had no idea what to do.

"Good," Dr. Heartfelt smile at her kindly, understanding how overwhelmed she must feel. "We will do everything we can to help the element of kindness."

All the doctors bowed again before leaving the room.

"You okay Twily?" Shining Armor questioned as his sister stared at the door all the professional has exited from.

"All those doctors trying to help," Twilight started unsure how to put her words. "All these doctors, and still… I'm not sure it will help. Sure, they can fix her physically, but will they ever be able to fix her mentally? How can you fix that?"

Her brother shook his head, unsure what to say as she continued.

"How can we fix this? How can I fix this?" she finished.

####

Rainbow Dash arrived at the hospital with a crash, literally, pushing through the entrance doors flying with such force that she lost all control, rolling to a stop at the information desk. Behind her Flash Century entered with much better grace, though he was soaked in sweat. 'I can't believe she flew so fast that whole way,' he thought to himself.

"Here for Fluttershy?" the pony behind the desk questioned. Normally he'd be suspicious of a pony showing up her state, her hair was a wild mess with what looked like a few bugs and leaves stuck in it, the fur on her face was streaked from perspiration, and she had an odor to her from flying so hard and not bathing in a couple of days, but the hospital staff was expecting her, and knew she'd had a long flight, so he said nothing.

"Where is she?" Dash practically shouted, jumping to her feet.

"This way ma'am," the pony motioned for her to follow him. Rainbow Dash was in such a hurry that she didn't even bother to correct him on the ma'am comment.

"Is she okay? Is Twilight here? Is she awake? Has she said anything? We're the doctors able to get all the poison out of her system?" Dash flew behind the pony wishing he'd walk quicker.

"The doctors will answer all your question, Ma'am."

"Where are the doctors? Where's Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash just wanted to get to her lover, she had to see her. She continued her incessant questions as they walked down several different hallways.

"Rainbow Dash!" a shout from her purple fur friend stopped her.

"Twilight! Where's Fluttershy? I have to see her." Rainbow Dash didn't bother landing she just flew in front of her friend.

"Fluttershy's getting a MRI right now, and it will probably be better if you prepare yourself before you see her."

"Prepare myself? Why? What happened? Is she going to be okay?" Rainbow Dash panicked, she didn't noticed Princess Candace or Shining Armor come out of a room and stand behind Twilight, just like she didn't notice Flash Century following her.

"The doctors think she'll make a full recovery from drinking… from drinking the poison," Twilight stuttered. "But they had to put tubing down her throat to stop scar tissue from forming, the nurses say it look worse than it is, but it is a little upsetting to see. And, the doctors are keeping her sedated while all that tubing is in her throat."

"Scar tissue?" Rainbow Dash questioned, landing hard on her hooves. "She's going have scar tissue? Oh buck this is all my fault!"

"Yes, you can talk to the doctors once Fluttershy is done with her MRI."

"I need to see her now!" Rainbow shouted.

"No, I think you need a quick shower, and some food in you, it will be at least an hour before you can see her." Shining Armor stepped next to his sister for support.

"Food, shower?" Dash snapped like it was the stupidest idea she'd ever heard.

"Yes Rainbow, when was the last time you've eaten?" Twilight questioned concerned.

"Who in Equestria cares about food right now? I need to see my Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash looked past her friends for a sign of where the MRI machine might be so she could get to her fiancée.

"You need to eat something or you're going to pass out or something," Twilight tried to reason.

"I don't need to do anything besides see Fluttershy!"

"I swear to Celesta if you don't calm down, eat something, and take a shower, I'm going to have one of the doctors knock you unconscienced and have you tube fed, understand?" Candace stomped her hoof, sounding exactly like a mother.

"FINE!" Rainbow relented. She'd do it but she was not going to be pleasant about it.

####

It a little over an hour before Rainbow Dash had showered and eaten enough to satisfy her friends. While she ate a few doctors had come in and explained her fiancés' situation to her. She was relieved to hear the Fluttershy should make a full recovery, but she wasn't stupid, she knew that they just meant physically she'd make a full recovery.

Before they entered the room Twilight placed a hoof in front of her stopping her.

"Rainbow, you're not going to react like you did when you heard what happened to Fluttershy, right?" she questioned.

"You mean, am I going to act like a freaking idiot, scream and shout, and then take off?" Dash translated. She wanted Twilight to know that she knew what she'd done had been stupid.

"Yes," Twilight didn't move her hoof.

"No, I'm not," Dash knew she could only buck up so much.

"Good, because if you do that again, I swear, I'll banish you to the moon," Twilight threatened.

"Please do," Rainbow Dash knew she'd deserve it

"Good, let's see our friend."

Fluttershy lay in bed in an awkward position; she was on her back, hooves to her side, wings extended out so they wouldn't get cramped from being laid on, her neck and head were extended back to allow tubes to extend down into her stomach and lungs. She was unaware of anything happening in the room around her.

"Fluttershy," Dash gasped. They had tried to prepare her, but nothing could prepare her for the sight in front of her.

Candace moved from her chair besides the hospital bed, allowing Rainbow Dash to sit in it, taking her lover's hoof in her two front hooves.

"Fluttershy," she sobbed. She leaned over touching her forehead to her fiancée' hoof, and silently began to cry, her whole body shaking as she finally allowed herself to cry.

She didn't notice as her friends silently left the room, leaving the two of them alone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note** : (Warning: story contains description of sexual assault (but not the actual act), and self-harm (only in chapter one)). The majority of this story is the path to recovery after a sexual assault.

 **Author's Note** **2** : I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested or knows anyone that is interested send me a PM. Thanks!

 **Part 3**

AppleJack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity arrived a few hours later via the Crystal Empire official chariot. They'd all managed to get a few hours of sleep on the flight, but were exhausted from the stress of the last couple of days. Even Rarity who was so picky about her hair had given up and put her fine purple hair into a ponytail. But, out of the three of them, Pinkie Pie was doing the worst, she'd just sat there almost the entire flight, staring at the distance, not saying a word, in a very un-Pinkie Pie fashion, both AppleJack and Rarity were worried.

Shining Armor met them when they landed.

"Fluttershy in the hospital, she is unconscious, but expected to make a full recovery," he didn't bother with greetings, knowing this would be the first thing they'd want to hear. "Rainbow Dash and Twilight are with Fluttershy right now."

"Can we see her?" AppleJack questioned anxious to see her friend.

"Yes, of course, follow me," Armor turned and started walking towards the hospital, the three elements of harmony followed him.

"Has she said anything?" AppleJack asked, she gave her pink haired friend a sideways glance. The earth pony was walking quietly staring at the path in front of her, she had a look that the apple loving pony had never seen on her before, and it was definitely not a good look.

"No, not that I know of, she's been unconscious the whole time," Shining Armor followed AJ glaze and noticed how the pink earth pony seemed off as well.

"Oh dear, is it that bad?" Rarity exclaimed.

"Um, well, no, the doctors can explain," Shining Armor didn't know how to properly explain the yellow furred pony's condition.

The Dr. Heartfelt did his best to prepare them for what they'd see in Fluttershy's room but like the ponies before them, this wasn't something you could be prepared for, the all gasped as they entered the room.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were sitting to either side of Fluttershy, who was hooked up to so many machines and tubes she looked half machine.

No pony was expecting the pink earth pony's reaction, but her quiet, anger should have been a clue, and before anyone could stop her, she launched herself at Rainbow Dash, knocking her out of her chair with such force that the wooden chair shattered.

"How could you let this happen?!" Pinkie Pie screamed. She had a mad look that they'd only ever seen once before, when she thought her friends didn't want to include her in their friendship.

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight shouted.

"Stop this right this instant," Rarity scolded. She noticed several nurses and doctors were already in the door way.

"Calm down Pinkie Pie," AppleJack commanded.

Pinkie Pie didn't listens to her friends, instead starting raining down blows onto her friend's face and chest. Rainbow Dash held up her front hooves to protect her face, but didn't strike back. As Pinkie landed blows she shouted over and over, "This is all your fault!"

It took both Shining Armor and AppleJack to pull the crazed earth pony off her friend. As they held her back she kicked wildly at the air attempting to get at Rainbow Dash.

The rainbow Pegasus got to her feet once her attacker was off her, blood leaked from her nose and split lip, but she ignored the pain.

"You're right Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry," Dash hung her head looking at the ground.

"You're sorry!" Pinkie Pie screamed madly. "You're sorry! Well that's great news! Hear that every pony?! Everything's going to be okay now that Rainbow Dash is sorry! Hear that Fluttershy?! Better get up, Rainbow Dash is sorry! Everything is now A-okay!"

AJ and Shining Armor struggled to keep hold of the pink furred pony but she wiggled out of their grip. She ran at the Pegasus pony, only to run into a force field that Twilight constructed.

"Why are you stopping me?" Pinkie shouted at the princess.

"Pinkie Pie, you need to calm down!" Twilight ordered.

"Calm down? How am I supposed to do that? Fluttershy almost died! She almost freaking killed herself! How you guys are all so calm? How you can just sit in a room with bucking Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy's almost murderer!" Pinkie Pie struck the force field with both of her front hooves, making its light pink force glimmer and ripple.

Pinkie Pie didn't noticed the doctor and nurse coming up behind her, or notice the slight nod Twilight gave them, and she barely noticed the pain of the sharp needle puncturing her back side, or the darkness that quickly took over her.

####

"Here you are," a kind crystal pony nurse gently placed an ice pack on Rainbow Dash's nose and lip. The blood had all been cleaned away, and luckily Dash's nose had not been broken.

"Would you like anything for at the pain?" Dr. Heartfelt questioned. He had been the one to administer the sedative to the pink earth pony. Reactions like hers did tend to happen every once in a while, and the best thing he'd found was to remove them for the situation allowing them to calm down.

"No, I'm fine, I kinda had that coming anyway," Rainbow Dash took ahold of the ice pack holding against her face. She was use to injuries from her dangerous tricks, a few blows to the face weren't going to stop her.

"Okay, well let me know if you need anything," he gave the blue pony a nodded before turning to leave the room. The crystal pony nurse followed him out.

"Well that was unexpected," Twilight had never seen Pinkie Pie resort to violence. Rarity had followed the pink haired pony to her own room, so she wasn't alone.

"Not really," AppleJack gave her friend a sympathetic look, she knew how much splitting your lip hurt. "Pinkie Pie has a temper, especially when it comes to her friends. When we were younger I remember her beating the snot out of some colt because he said something pervy to Rarity and made her cry."

"And like I said, I kinda had that coming," RD nodded. If a few punches could get Pinkie Pie to forgive her, it was worth it.

"Well she should have caused such a commotion in a hospital, especially in Fluttershy's room," Twilight chilled.

"When doesn't that girl make a commotion?" AppleJack questioned, she sat down one of the two chairs the nurses had brought into the room for them. They'd also cleaned up the broken chair, and brought them all drinks and a few snacks. AppleJack noted that the apples were definitely not from her farm, they were too sad looking for that.

Rainbow Dash took her seat next to her fiancée, grabbing her hoof with hers.

"I really messed up you guys, do you think Fluttershy will ever forgive me?" Dash questioned.

"Of course Fluttershy will forgive you," AJ stated without having to think about it. "Fluttershy will forgive any pony for anything, that's her nature."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed, unsure if that was a good thing or not.

"That doesn't mean you don't have to make up for your action," AppleJack was also not so sure that Fluttershy's forgiving nature was such a good thing, though she knew it was part of her kindness, and part of what made her the element of kindness.

"I know," Rainbow nodded, she wondered how AppleJack had managed to get so wise; they were the same age.

"I think the hardest part will be helping her get over what Starlight Glimmer did," Twilight spoke up.

Both RD and AJ nodded sadly in agreement.

"Dr. Candycakes thinks it would be a good idea if we all get together before Fluttershy wakes up, to talk about everything that happened, how it is affecting every pony, and what we can do to support Fluttershy. She has a specialist that deals exclusively with this issue, and can help us know what to do."

"That sounds like a swell idea," AppleJack did want to talk to some pony about this, and someone that knew how to help would be excellent.

"I will do anything if will help Flutters," Rainbow Dash did not want to talk about her feelings and get all emotional, but information on how to help Fluttershy would be great.

"Okay, I'll let the doctor know," Twilight was happy to at least be doing something productive.

###

"Feel better now that you beat the tar out of one of you best friends?" Rarity questioned her friend who was now pretending to be asleep in front of her. She'd managed a few hours of broken sleep while the medication had a hold of the other pony.

"Yes," Pinkie Pie lied. She made no move to get up, it still felt like the room was spinning.

"Well at least you got that out of your system," Rarity used her magic to pick up a small cake, some of the food the nurses had brought them. She ate it in one bite, knowing she was stress eating but not caring.

"What did the doctors do to me?" Pinkie finally managed to roll to her side. She noted the IV they'd attached to her bottom right leg.

"You were creating such a scene that they had to drug you, some sort of medication to make to you sleep, I'm not sure what," Rarity flipped her hair eyeing one of the brownies.

"They said you should eat something when you wake up," she added, giving and eating her second brownie of the day.

"It seems like you're eating enough for the both of us," Pinkie Pie joked, almost sounding like her normal self.

"I stress eat, everyone knows that," Rarity retorted.

"And I snap and act like a crazy pony," Pinkie grabbed the bed controller and pressed the button that slowly lifted her back so she was more in a sitting position. Rarity used her magic to place a tray of healthy vegetable pasta in front of her friend, along with a large glass of water, and a large glass of juice.

"I want cake," Pinkie whined reaching for the sweets which were outside of her reach.

"Too bad, you have to eat something healthy first," Rarity chilled.

"You just want all the sweets for yourself," Pinkie Pie stated before leaning over and taking a large bite of the pasta, she was hungry.

"You can have some after you finish your dinner."

"Fine mom," Pinkie Pie said sarcastically.

"After you're done eating we have an appointment with some sort of specialist psychologist," Rarity agreed that it was a good idea for all of them.

"Why? Because I'm cra-cra-crazy?" Pinkie joked.

"No, though I'm sure we'll talk about your outburst, but the appointment is for us to discuss what happened and how we can help support Fluttershy." Rarity had taken a few extra classes on psychology when she was at her fashion school, she found the subject interesting, but would never had pursued a career as a doctor.

"Oh," Was Pinkie Pie's only response, she finished the rest of her food in silence.

####

Dr. Candycakes and her colleague, Dr. Seaweed, a yellow fur unicorn with dark green hair, who specialized in rape recovery, had tried to make the meeting room as comfortable as possible. Both of them were the top of their fields and had been working with patients for years, and had strong faith in what they did. They knew if any pony could help, they could.

As the ponies known as the elements of harmony entered the room the doctors noted their posture and where each of them chose to sit.

The rainbow haired pony, who they knew was the victim's fiancée entered the room first, her ears were back and she look the seat that was closest to the window, while being as far as possible from where the doctors were sitting. The only files they had on the mare were on her physical health, however she did have a rather large file; she seemed to get in a lot of accidents.

Princess Twilight entered behind her friend, she seemed more curious than nervous, she chose to sit next to Rainbow Dash on the far side of the room, so she had a full view of everything happening in the room. They hadn't been able to get all the information on the princess, any medical files on her were highly censored, but they'd spoken to her general doctor, and she'd noted no abnormalities.

The orange furred pony who the files indicated was AppleJack entered next. She nodded at both the doctors before taking a seat on the other side of Rainbow Dash, closest to the doctors. Ready to help resolve any problem between the doctors and her friend if need be. The doctors had the notes from the counselor she'd seen after the death of her parents, the event had obviously been traumatic, but the counselor did not note anything abnormal.

The pink haired earth pony bounced in next, she seemed full of energy. She seemed to have already forgiven RD. She chose the seat next to Twilight, fidgeting full of nervous energy, she was obviously unhappy with the chair placement because she got up and pushed her chair closer to the alicorn's chair, before sitting back down. They had a file on Pinkie Pie, from years ago, when her parents had taken her to see an actual psychologist, stating the reasoning being over excitability, and the inability to concentrate. The doctor she'd seen obviously had not been too concerned, he'd written that she'd possibly had a mild form of ADHD, and seemed to be manic, but the ADHD wasn't sever enough to warrant medication, and she was too young to be diagnosed as manic. He'd told her parents to stop giving the young filly so much sugar, and to try to encourage more physical activities.

Last entered the unicorn known as Rarity, her hair was still damp and she's obviously just showered. Her normally perfectly curled hair was in a lose braid. She quickly went to the last open seat sitting down without even looking around the room. The white furred pony seemed to have had a relatively normal upbringing, and the only thing they'd found noted was she tended to be over dramatic.

Pinkie Pie was again unhappy with the chair situation, and got up, pushing the unicorn's chair closer to hers, the unicorn just rolled her eyes and said nothing.

When everyone had been seated, Dr. Seaweed spoke up, "I'd like to welcome you all, I know this has been and will continue to be a stressful, emotionally taxing situation, but we'd like you to know that Dr. Candycakes and I will be doing everything we can to help you ponies."

Both doctors noted Rainbow Dash rolling her eyes, but the Pegasus didn't say anything.

"We'd like to begin this session," Dr. Candycakes continued, "With introductions, seeing we haven't met any pony beside the princess, and a little information about your relationship with Fluttershy, maybe start with how you met her."

"Relationship?" Twilight interrupted, "Like how we're best friends forever, or like a list of everything we know about Fluttershy?" Twilight wanted to make sure her answer was correct.

"Any information you feel like sharing will be okay, your majesty" Dr. Seaweed smiled warmly at the princess.

"Twilight is fine, please," Twilight still was not a fan of her titles.

"Of course Twilight," Dr. Seaweed corrected herself.

"Now why don't we go in a circle, starting with you Ms. Rarity," Dr. Candycakes nodded at the unicorn.

"Me?" Rarity pointed at herself, not wanting to go first.

"Only say what you're comfortable saying," Dr. Seaweed encouraged.

"Well okay…" Rarity attempted to flip her hair only to remember that it was in a wet braid which almost smacked her in the face.

"I'm Rarity," she blushed slightly at her mistake. "Owner of Rarity's Boutique." She paused thinking of how to continue, "I met Fluttershy a little after she'd moved to Ponyville. She was so shy than, even more so than she is now, so I hadn't really talked to her, but when I was having troubles with cat Opalescence, who was a kitten than, AppleJack suggested I take him to see her, calling her the animal whisperer." Rarity shifted in her seat, remembering that day clearly.

"Fluttershy was living in the cottage she still lives in now, but it was a little more run down at the time, she was trying to fix it up, but was too shy to ask for any ponies help, and I learned later that she was having money issues, but that's what she was doing when I approached her place, she was on the roof, attempting some sort of patch. When she saw me she almost fell right off, she looked like she was going to bolt when I said hello. I'd never seen any pony so nervous, she'd stuttered something when I introduced myself. I almost just turned and left, considering how worked up I was making her, but then she saw Opalescence, and flew right down to us. After that icebreaker we'd managed to become friends, though it was a long time before Fluttershy was completely comfortable around me." Rarity finished, faking interest in the rooms curtains.

"Thank you Rarity, that was very good," Dr. Candycakes smiled at her.

"Why don't you go next?" Dr. Seaweed nodded at Pinkie.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" the pink pony threw confetti which she pulled from somewhere into the air at her introduction, she did enjoy making a mess. "I'm an apprentice to the Cake family, I like candy, parties and balloons." Pinkie pulled out a balloon out, blew it up, and manipulated it into a pony. She placed it on the coffee table in the center of the circle before continuing. "I met Fluttershy the day she moved to Ponyville, I meet every pony the day they move to Ponyville. I threw her a surprise party, which FYI, is a horrible idea, Fluttershy DOES NOT like surprise parties, not one bit, she actually ran when we surprised her, which does happen sometimes, but she wouldn't come back, even for cake! Cake!" Pinkie held up her hoof and shrugged, "who can turn down cake? Anyway so after that party it look a long time for her to not freak out every time I saw her, she was really really shy, like really freaking shy. But AJ told me to bring out Gummy to see her one day, and I did, and it worked, and now we're best friends forever!"

"Thank you Pinkie Pie," Dr. Candycakes nodded. She motioned that the pony, who was now jumping up and down in her seat, she settle down.

"Twilight, would you like to go next?" Dr. Candycakes.

"Yes, of course," Twilight sat up straight. "Obviously you already know, I'm Twilight Sparkles, princess of friendship, though, not sure how much longer that's going to last, considering how badly I messed up our first actual mission." Twilight shook her head in shame, looking at all her friends, Rainbow Dash avoided her eyes, but all her other friends made eye contact. "I met Fluttershy when first came to Ponyville, she was very timid and couldn't even tell me her name, but as soon as she saw Spike, my friend who's baby dragon, she opened right up. I was almost annoyed at how much she talked, which thinking now, must have been a big improvement from when she met Pinkie Pie and Rarity," she finished.

"Yes," Dr. Seaweed agreed. "Would you like to go next?" she motioned at Rainbow Dash.

"Nope, no way," Dash crossed her front hooves stubbornly.

"Come on Rainbow, you agreed this would help," Twilight reminded.

"So?" Rainbow snapped, "Doesn't mean I need to get all feelie."

"Why don't we skip you?" Dr. Candycakes interrupted. "How about you go next?" she motioned at AppleJack.

"Sure," AJ gave her friend a look before continuing. "As ya know I'm AppleJack, I help run our family apple farm in Ponyville. I remember when Fluttershy moved to town, some pony in town mentioned we had a new neighbor, by our farm. I remember being surprised, the cabin she moved into had never really been lived in year round. It was a seasonal cabin that had been abandoned for a while. Well, I wanted to be neighborly, so I'd gotten together a basket of apples and such, and had gone over to visit. I remember thinking when I first saw her that she looked terrified of me. I wasn't able to get much out of her that first visit, but I was worried about her staying the that run down cabin by herself on the edge of the forest, so the next day Big Mac and I went to her place with a cart of supplies. She seemed even more scared of Big Mac, which is kind of funny, considering he's almost as shy as Fluttershy sometimes. When she realized what we were going to do, she finally spoke up, trying to stop up, saying she had no way to repay us, and such not, and I finally got her name at that point. We insisted, she needed at least a strong door with a working lock if she was going to live there by herself. She made us tea when we were done, and when her and Big Mac realized how shy they both were, they were able to be a little more comfortable around each other. I think I was able to get a little past Fluttershy's shyness because I was used to dealing with my big brother's shyness. The next day we came again to fix her windows, and I brought Winona and they hit it off right away, that's how I learned how much she likes animals." AppleJack knew she could have continued on forever on the subject of her pink haired friend, but figured that was enough.

"I didn't realize she had it so rough when she first moved to Ponyville," Rainbow Dash confessed.

"Yeah, where were you?" Pinkie Pie questioned. "I thought you guys were best friends before Fluttershy came to Ponyville."

"We were but I had to go to weather pony school, and while I was away was when Fluttershy moved to Ponyville." Rainbow Dash knew she should have been closer to her friend, but at that point in her life, she was focusing on getting through school which was so boring that it was hard.

"And how did the two of you meet?" Dr. Seaweed questioned.

"In Cloudsdale," Rainbow Dash continued not realizing she was being tricked into talking. "We were in after school flight club, it was for ponies who wanted to be really good at flying. I'd learn that Fluttershy was only there because her parents made her go, she was such a poor flier. She could barely glide with her wings, and she often got wing cramps, or they froze on her. It didn't help that our coach was kind of a jerk, and would push Fluttershy right off the jumping ramp, that didn't help her with flying, only helped her with falling. I became friends with her when two young colts were picking on her. She was so much smaller than her, they shouldn't have been pushing her around. I intervened and got into one of my first fights, which I of course won. Afterwards Fluttershy helped me clean up some of my cuts, we've been best friends since."

"Sound like you two had a hard time growing up?" Dr. Candycakes questioned.

"Me? No. Not really." Rainbow Dash was slightly annoyed that the doctors didn't think she could handle herself. "Fluttershy had a hard time though, her parents weren't exactly supporting, and her poor flying made her an easy target at school."

"So how is her relationship with her parents now?" Dr. Seaweed questioned.

"What relationship?" Rainbow snapped. She'd wanted to punch Fluttershy's dad in the face more than once. "They never talk, they haven't probably since Fluttershy moved to Ponyville."

"So she had no family members she close to?" Dr. Seaweed quickly wrote that in her notes. Having a strong support system was important for sexual assault victims.

"I think she still writes to one of her older brothers now and then, but no, besides us, she doesn't have any family members she's close to."

"Okay, well that means you ponies support is going to be even more important," Dr. Candycakes was worried to hear that the yellow Pegasus had no family support, it could make her recovery all the more harder.

"Now, from what you have all said about your friend, she is obviously very shy, and it takes her a long time to warm up to new ponies," Dr. Seaweed spoke. "It also seems like from her friendships with you ponies, she seems to have come out of her shell a little. It is important that you be aware that this attack might have drawn her back in. She may have issues overcoming her shyness that she never had before, and she may be more timid, even scared of new ponies she does not know. It will be extremely important that you help support her through this, but do not push her, forcing her to get over her shyness or trust issues with not help her, and could make her worse," Dr. Seaweed stressed her words.

"So does this mean I can't invite her to my welcome to the village parties when a new pony moves to Ponyville?!" Pinkie Pie questioned, sounding slightly panicked.

"No, of course you can invite her, you should be encouraging her to do all the activities she enjoyed before the attack, however, should not force her to go to the party if she is not ready, understand?" Dr. Seaweed questioned Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie just nodded her head sadly in response, the only sound being Twilight attempting to scribble down all this information as quickly as possible.

"And, it seems that Fluttershy really likes animal," Dr. Seaweed stated. "That they help Fluttershy get over her initial shyness with new ponies, this is important, and she could be encouraged to get back to all the activities she did with animals before the attack."

"So I still get to sleep in a cabin full of every sort of animal, including on occasion, a frickin bear, right?" Dash questioned sarcastically. All this information seemed stupidly simple.

"Yes," Dr. Seaweed ignored her sarcasm. "Now for the hard part."

"That wasn't the hard part?" Twilight questioned, still writing.

Dr. Seaweed gave her a knowing nod before continuing, "Now you all know Fluttershy was sexually assaulted, which is the worst kind of assault that cuts ponies to the core. It strips away a pony's sense of dignity, autonomy, and control. It is violence against a ponies' most inner and personal self, it is devastating in every possible was. Now, there are things you can do to help your friend, and it is very important that you listen now, and do everything you can to follow this advice, okay?" Dr. Seaweed looked around the group, all the ponies were looking at her wide eye nodding, even Rainbow Dash.

"First off, there is no right way for you ponies to feel about what happened to your friend, you may feel anger towards the perpetrator, fear for your own safety, sadness that your friend was violently robbed of so many things, or maybe even feel nothing at all. This is an incredibly complex time, and the way you all respond will have a huge impact on Fluttershy and your friendship with her." Dr. Seaweed paused letting her words sink in, and letting Twilight catch up her notes.

"Now, the most important thing you all can do for Fluttershy is listen. Listen of course right? Seems simple, right? But a lot of ponies have issues with this, wanting to interrupt, say their opinions, which is fine normally, but Fluttershy deserves to be truly heard, there is nothing wrong with not having the answers, there is nothing wrong with silence, the most important thing is that you really listen," Dr. Seaweed looked around the group again, every pony seemed to be listening, but were all avoiding eye contract.

"When talking about the assault, always remind Fluttershy that this was not her fault. Avoid saying anything that puts the blame on her. There was nothing she could do to deserve or ask to be raped. The responsibility always completely lies on the rapist, never on her," Dr. Seaweed paused again. She heard a sniff and gave a sideways glance at Rarity who had a few tears in her eyes. Rainbow Dash had suddenly become very interested in the actions outside the window. Pinkie Pie was picking at lint on her chair, and AppleJack has used her hat to cover her face. None of their reactions were out of the ordinary.

"Next, it is very important to honor your friend's autonomy and her ability to make decisions about her life. Never tell Fluttershy that she has to something, it may not be your intent, but when you say she needs to do something, you are taking away her power, just as the perpetrator did. At the time of the assault Fluttershy was violently stripped of her ability to make decisions, to be a full and complete pony with control of her life. It is very important that she feels in control of her own live, regardless of what you think she should do." Dr. Seaweed knew a lot of close friends had issues with this because they truly wanted to help their friends.

"You ponies also need to understand that every rape survivor response is complex and varied, Fluttershy's response may be multi-layered and her recovery will not be linear. She may seem fine one month, and the next be completely devastated. This is okay, and it is important that Fluttershy know this is okay. Recovery will take time, and is different for every pony," Dr. Seaweed glanced at her coworker who was taking notes on the elements of harmony's response to this information, for them to go over later, she was almost as busy writing as Twilight.

"On top of helping Fluttershy with her emotional safety, physical safety will be a major factor in the way Fluttershy is able to re-navigate her life. We know she is very shy, and timid around other ponies, so this may be hard, but it is important she find a way to continue about her life. If her fear becomes overwhelming for her you may have to take on responsibilities you never had before. Like accompanying her to market or whatever task seems daunting or scary. When you walk her home you many have to go into her cottage and turn on the lights before she comes in. Fluttershy may need help feeling safe in her own life and there are many things you can do to help her," Dr. Seaweed noticed the rainbow Pegasus nodding vigorously to this information, finally feeling like at least there was one things she could do.

"Lastly, make sure to take care of yourselves. Lot of ponies forget this this, but it is an essential part of helping others. In order to truly help Fluttershy you need to be emotionally healthy. You can't help her if you're struggling more than she is," the doctor paused again, all the young ponies in the room looked emotionally drained, but they had a lot more to cover that day, especially since Fluttershy would be woken up the next day.

"Now," Dr. Seaweed paused, the next topic was more along the lines of Dr. Candycakes, so she's be taking over the discussion. "We need to talk about the issue of self-harm."

The doctors spent over an half an hour going over what causes self-harm, and what they'd could do and what they had to do to help Fluttershy. Of course they'd wouldn't know for sure what had motivated Fluttershy to drink the poison until she woke up, but something were the same with all ponies. After the doctors were done they went around the circle again, having each pony talk about how they felt about all the information they'd just heard, and what their plans were once Fluttershy awoke. Pinkie Pie had to be talked out of giving 'you're alive party', and was talked down into hosting a picnic when they got back to Ponyville in Fluttershy's honor.

When that was done the doctors set up one-on-one appointments with the ponies. Dr. Seaweed would be working with Rainbow Dash, considering she'd be closest to Fluttershy and the one who had to be the most prepared, and AppleJack, who seemed to know Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash the best. Dr. Candycakes would work with the Princess, due to the fact she'd worked with royalty before, Pinkie Pie, because she'd dealt with many patients before with hyperactivity and bipolar behavior, and Rarity, who was acting least affected but the doctors did not think that was the case.

"Now, I know this is a lot to take in," Dr. Candycakes started to wrap up the meeting. "But you're not expected to memorize it. We have resources for you all to refer too whenever you need too, and Dr. Seaweed and I will be on-call 24, anytime you need us, here in the Crystal Empire, and back in Ponyville. Remember you also have each other too, you ponies know Fluttershy the best, and you also know each other the best, you can be each other's greatest support system."

"Next time we meet as a group, Fluttershy will be awake, and if she's feeling up to it, we'll encourage her to join us," Dr. Candycakes continued. "However, it is important that we do not force her, she must feel in control of her own treatment, if she joins us, great, if she chooses not to, and that's okay too."

"That sounds very good doctor," Twilight nodded. "I'd like all those resources in the meantime, I have to start a check list."

"Of course Twilight, we'll have everything brought to you," Dr. Seaweed and Dr. Candycakes stood up, the other ponies followed.

"Now remember to take care of yourselves, and each other, Fluttershy needs to all to be at the top of your games, okay?" The other ponies nodded at her and they exited the room.

####

"Well that took for frickin ever!" Rainbow Dash whined as they exited the room. "My wings are cramping from sitting in those stupid chairs for so long."

"I thought the chairs were very comfortable," Pinkie Pie jumped up and down next to her friend.

"Whatever, I'm going back to Fluttershy's room," Rainbow Dash started stretching out her wings, she would fly there, she was pretty sure she left the hospital room window unlocked.

"Don't you think you should rest," Twilight stopped her. "Try to get at least eight hours of sleep and a few good meals in before Fluttershy awakes? The doctors said the earliest she'd be away is mid-morning tomorrow, we could take turns sitting with her."

"The nurses have been giving me plenty of food, and I've been napping in the chair next to her bed, I'm fine, and I don't want to leave her alone," Rainbow lied. She'd tried a nap, but the chair was too uncomfortable, and she wasn't hungry enough to eat more than a few bites.

"Don't be ridiculous Ms. Dash, you need to be at the top of your game tomorrow," Rarity chilled.

"Yeah, don' make me hold a 'stop kidding yourself' intervention," Pinkie threatened.

"Yes, and our normal rooms are all set up at the castle, none of us have gotten a full night's rest, and remember the doctors said we have to take care of ourselves too," Twilight reminded.

"I'll take the first shift," Rarity declared. "I managed a nap and shower already."

"Fine, but you'll have some pony come get me right away if anything changes, right?" Rainbow Dash didn't want to admit defeat but she was too exhausted to argue.

"Of course I will silly," Rarity chilled.

"Well now that's settled, I got a train to catch if I'm going to catch the train back tonight," AppleJack shifted her hat. She was going back to Ponyville for a couple of hours to check on family and farm, she'd also check in with Spike while there. "You'll have anything you need me to do while there?"

"Ooohhhh! Cupcakes!" Pinkie Pie couldn't explain it but she'd been craving them since she'd meet the doctors. Every other pony shook their heads no.

"Why don't we all plan on having an early breakfast together tomorrow?" Twilight planned.

Every pony agreed to this before heading their separate ways.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note** : Thanks for reading!

 **Part 4**

"Now, it's very important that you give her nothing to drink or eat when she awakes, understand?" Dr. Heartfelt questioned for the third time.

"Yes." Rainbow Dash snapped. "Jeeze, I'm not friggen stupid."

"No pony thinks that," Dr. Heartfelt stated calmly. "It is just very important for Fluttershy's recovery that she drink this medication as soon as she awakes and nothing more for two hours. She's going to be mildly uncomfortable, and will probably want something to drink something, but we need to give the medicine time to work." Dr. Heartfelt injected something into Fluttershy's IV that would counteract the drugs already in her system, allowing her to slowly regain conscience.

"Please contact us if you need anything," Dr. Heartfelt handed Rainbow the controller that would page the nurses. "And, I'll be right down the hall, okay?"

"Yes." Dash was sick of him treating her like she was a stupid or something.

"Okay, good," the doctor gave her a nod before leaving the room.

Rainbow Dash gave a sigh of relief at his exit, but one look at Fluttershy who was still sleeping peacefully made her stomach drop, this was going to be really hard.

They'd decided that it would be best if every pony wasn't in the room when Fluttershy woke up, she got stressed out be large groups in normal day to day situations, so who knew how she would react to waking up in a packed hospital room. Rainbow Dash would be with her when she woke up, and their friends would be in the waiting room.

Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy's hoof with her two front hooves, and placed her head next to them on the bed, she closed her eyes and waited for her love to wake up.

####

Fluttershy was running as quickly as she could from something, or some pony? She wasn't sure, but she knew whatever was chasing her was terrifying, and she was scared; she had to get away as quickly as she could. This was proving difficult because first her legs had refused to work properly, and now she was stuck in some sort of mud, and as much as she strained, she wasn't getting anywhere.

A harsh laughter behind her caused her to snap her head back, it took her a moment to realize her stalker. She flapped her wings in an attempt to fly way, but they cramped and snapped back into place, refusing to work at all. She was trapped. She covered her eyes, and attempted to accept her fate.

The scene changed suddenly, and she was back in that awful room and she just knew that some pony was trying to get through the door. She lunged at it, trying to hold it close, but as she leaned against it suddenly disappeared and she fell onto her back, and there was Starlight Glimmer standing over her, smirking. Fluttershy screamed attempting to push her soon to be attacker away as the unicorn used her magic to make her limbs heavy.

"You're such a sweet little Pegasus," Glimmer whispered in her ear as she stepped over the smaller pony. Her words made Fluttershy want to vomit.

"Please, no," Fluttershy sobbed. 'Why couldn't she get her limbs to work?'

"Oh, no tears dear, be a good filly," Starlight Glimmer ran her right hoof roughly up and down Fluttershy chest. "Or maybe I'll go get one of your precious friends, maybe that pretty unicorn Rarity, you think she'd enjoy this?" Starlight Glimmer leaned in close, rubbing her muzzle on Fluttershy's neck.

"No, no," Fluttershy couldn't let Starlight Glimmer hurt her friend, even if her touches felt like burns against her body.

"Then be a good little filly and do what I say." Starlight used one of her back legs to roughly separate Shy's back legs. Fluttershy couldn't stop her automatic response to flight this attack.

"I said be a good girl," Glimmer hissed. She used her weight and slammed her knee forcefully against the yellow Pegasus pony's genitals. Fluttershy sobbed in pain, not being able to hold back her tears.

"Please don't…" she cried.

"Fine, be that way," Glimmer used the full force of her magic to force all of Fluttershy's limbs against the hard floor.

"I guess we're doing this the hard way," Starlight Glimmer started rubbing her back knee roughly against Fluttershy's lower half.

"Have you ever been with a Unicorn?" she smirked. "Our horns are really sensitive and…."

"Enough!" a voice shouted and the nightmare disappeared and Fluttershy suddenly found herself in a green field, butterflies all around her, Princess Luna standing in front of her.

"Princess!" Fluttershy quickly bowed.

"No need for that child, you just need to wake up," Luna leaned over gently touching Fluttershy with her horn.

Fluttershy awoke with a jolt, pushing violently at whatever pony was holding onto her shoulders.

"What?" Fluttershy shot up in bed, only to feel an intense pain in her throat and stomach. Flying now on the other side of the room was her fiancée.

"Fluttershy, I'm sorry, you were having a nightmare, I was trying to wake you up," Rainbow Dash knew she'd already messed this up; she shouldn't have touched Fluttershy.

"Its fine," Fluttershy's throat felt like it was on fire. She looked around the room hoping to find a glass of water, something to sooth her throat.

"Oh, jeeze, sorry," Rainbow Dash remember the medicine. "Doctors say you have to drink this." Rainbow Dash picked up the small container, taking off the top, before holding it out to Fluttershy, being careful to not get too close.

Fluttershy looked at her sadly before carefully taking the flask, drinking it in two small sips. It didn't help, in fact it intensified the pain, if felt like she'd just drunk fire and it was slowly making its way into her stomach.

"Can I have some water too?" Fluttershy chocked on her words, speaking was painful.

"I'm sorry Flutters, doctors said no, you have to let the medicine work and you can't eat or drink anything for two more hours," Dash hated this, and she hated the doctors for letting her Shy suffer.

"Oh, okay," Fluttershy didn't argue, she was in too much pain. She laid back down pulling the white sheet up completely covering herself including her head. She rolled over, buried her face in her pillow and attempted to ignore the pain as she focused on her breathing.

"Shy, are you okay, do you want me to get the doctors?" Rainbow Dash did not know what to do, Fluttershy obviously didn't even want to be seen by her, and she had no idea how to make this situation better.

"No," Fluttershy did not want to have to talk to some strange pony.

"Than what can I do?" Dash felt like crying.

"Please, just, don't leave, okay?" Fluttershy whispered.

"Oh, god, of course not, I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Rainbow Dash was going to do whatever she could to make this better.

Dr. Heartfelt carefully entered the room several minute later, he stood far from the bed, motioning for Rainbow Dash to alert her mare friend, who was still hiding under the sheet unaware of his presence.

"Um, Fluttershy, the doctor's here to check up on you," Dash stayed in her seat not daring to touch her love at the moment.

Fluttershy became ridged under the sheet but did not respond.

"Hello, Ms. Fluttershy, I'm Dr. Heartfelt, I've been you attending the doctor for the last couple of days," Dr. Heartfelt moved to the side of the Pegasus's bed. He wondered if he should get Dr. Candycakes, the patient was obviously not responding well.

"Were you able to take the medication I left with Ms. Dash?" he questioned

Fluttershy still did not answer, but Rainbow Dash nodded her head answering for her.

"Are you in any pain?" he checked her IV system it still seemed to be working properly.

Fluttershy shifted under the sheet, Rainbow Dash guessed she was nodding her head.

"Ms. Fluttershy, would it be okay if we removed the sheet, just for a few moments so we can talk?" Dr. Heartfelt questioned.

"Oh, no thank you," Fluttershy finally spoke.

"Are you in any pain?" he tried again. "I can give you something that can help it."

"Um, yes, thank you," Fluttershy whispered, still not moving from under the cover.

"Okay, if it is okay with you, I'm going to inject the medicine into your IV."

"Okay…" Fluttershy nodded her head, and they could both see the slight movement under the sheet.

Dr. Heartfelt carefully injected a mild pain medication into the patient's IV. The pain would be much better once all the medication had a chance to work.

"The medication will take a few minutes to work, but you should feel much better after that, please let us know if you need anything else, or if the pain does not get better, okay?" Dr. Heartfelt wished there was more he could do.

Fluttershy nodded again, ignoring the fact he couldn't see her.

Dr. Heartfelt moved to the doorway and motioned for Rainbow Dash to follow him.

"Princess Twilight and your friends want to see her, do you think she'd want that?" he question.

Rainbow Dash looked at her love than back to the doctor, "She doesn't even want to see me right now, I don't think she wants to see anyone else, but I'll ask."

"Okay, just let any nurse know if she decides she does. Also, Dr. Seaweed would like to see her as soon as possible, but I don't think she's ready, and I'm going to tell the doctor to hold off for a little while longer, at least to all the medication has had a chance to work."

"Yeah, that will probably be better," Rainbow knew the more strangers Fluttershy had to meet the worse it would be for her.

"Okay, let us know if anything changes, or if you or Fluttershy need anything."

"Will do," Dash nodded.

Dr. Heartfelt left and she went back to her seat. "Fluttershy?" she questioned softly.

"Yes?" Fluttershy could feel some of the pain disappearing, it was a relief.

"Our friends are in the waiting room and would like to see you, would you like to see them?" RD wondered if maybe they'd know what to do to get Fluttershy to come out from under the blanket.

"Oh, no thank you," Fluttershy did not want to see any pony. She was such a failure, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and wait for death.

Rainbow Dash wanted to push the issue, their friends really wanted and needed to see the yellow Pegasus, but she also didn't want to force Fluttershy to do something that made her uncomfortable, so she gave it, allowing silence to take the room.

Two hours later Fluttershy finally emerged from under the sheet for the promise of water and juice which the nurses brought her. They were both small containers of liquid, she'd be limited for a couple of days on how much she could drink, and wouldn't be able to eat solids for a while, but it was a start.

Fluttershy took both of the drink, finishing them quickly. The cool liquid felt great against the back of her throat, and the medication had worked, and the pain was almost gone.

"Better?" Rainbow Dash questioned, glad actually be able to see her love. Fluttershy leaned back against the pillow propping her up, and nodded, she looked around the room for the first time, and quietly asked, "We're are we?"

"Well, um, that's an interesting story," Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Fluttershy listened in silence as Dash told her of ever thing that had happened over the last few days. The yellow Pegasus listened wide-eyed, upset at all the trouble she'd caused her friends.

"Oh, my poor animals!" Fluttershy exclaimed once Rainbow was done, and she realized how many days she'd been gone.

"Don't worry Shy, AppleJack went back to Ponyville yesterday and checked on Spike and Zecora; they said you're animals are fine."

Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief, she did not like leaving her animal friends for this long.

"Though Angel is being even more of a jerk," Dash added trying a joke.

"Poor thing," Fluttershy shook her head sadly. "It was so selfish of me, I didn't even think about my poor animal friends." Fluttershy paused for a few moments before continuing, "I didn't think about any of my friends."

"Why'd you do it?" Rainbow Dash blurted out.

"Hurt myself?" Fluttershy questioned. She fidgeted with the empty cup in front of her, not wanting to answer the question, but knowing her fiancée deserved an answer. "I don't know… I just wanted to get rid of the taste she left," She answered truthfully.

Rainbow Dash tasted bile and fought the urge to vomit at this new information. She really did not know what to say or how to react.

"I'm so sorry," was all she could manage.

"It isn't your fault…" Fluttershy didn't make eye contact, she just stared at the sheet covering her back hooves.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither of them knowing what to say to make the other feel better.

Finally Dash gave up, and changed the subject, "Every pony is still in the waiting room, waiting to see you, would you like to see them?"

Fluttershy quickly shook her head no. The last thing she need was to disappoint her friends even more.

"Please Shy?" Dash again didn't want to push, but she knew they really wanted to see her.

"Who's out there?" Fluttershy questioned softly.

"Twi, Pinkie, Rarity, and AJ," Rainbow Dash didn't think Cadence was out there.

"Oh," Fluttershy tapped her hooves together nervously. "Maybe I can just see one other pony for now? Maybe just Applejack?" Fluttershy couldn't deal with every pony.

"Okay, good, I'll let the nurses know," Rainbow knew it might hurt the other ponies' feelings, but at least it was a start.

####

All the ponies stood up when Dr. Heartfelt entered the room. He gave them a quick update on Fluttershy's condition, and then let Applejack know that the patient would see her.

"Just Applejack?" Pinkie Pie whined.

"Yes, sorry," Dr. Heartfelt was glad that at least the yellow furred pony wasn't hiding under her sheet anymore.

"She probably doesn't want to be over whelmed," Twilight thought logically.

"Yes, and Applejack is the least likely to overreact," Rarity thought about herself.

"Eeyup," Applejack agreed. "I'll let her know ya'll are here to support her." AJ tried to think of all the advice the doctors had given them. She wished she'd taken notes like Twilight.

Applejack wasn't one to be nervous, but she felt her heart beating like a jackrabbit's high on coffee as she entered her friend's room. Fluttershy was sitting up in bed and Rainbow Dash was sitting a careful distance to her side. AJ smiled at her friend before slowly taking the seat next to her.

"How ya doing Fluttershy?" she questioned, resisting the urge to grab her hoof in support.

"Oh, okay," Fluttershy stated meekly. She looked away from her friends, out the window.

"Did the doctors come and see ya yet?" AJ questioned.

"Um, Dr. Heartfelt came in a couple of time," Fluttershy continued to look out the window. She saw a bird in the distance and wondered what he was doing.

Applejack nodded even though Fluttershy wasn't looking at her. The other doctors were probably giving Fluttershy time to process what was going on if they hadn't seen her yet.

"How are ya feeling sugarcube?" Applejack tried again.

"Oh, I'm fine," Fluttershy lied. The bird outside looped back and was joined by another bird, they seemed to know each other, and they chirped something at each other.

AppleJack gave Rainbow Dash an uneasy look and Dash gave her the same look back.

"I saw Angel yesterday, he misses you a lot," AppleJack tried something else.

"Oh, is he okay? He isn't too mad is he?" Fluttershy finally turned from the window, looking at her friend.

"Well, he seemed a little more annoyed than normal, but Spike and Zecora at taking good care of all your animals."

"Oh, yes, it is so nice of Zecora to come help me with my animals when I'm away, they all like her so much. And of course they love Spike, even if Angel is a little mean to him sometimes," Fluttershy was glad for any news on her animal friends.

"We'll have to get them both something nice for all their hard work when we get back to Ponyville," Fluttershy nodded at her fiancée.

"Of course!" Rainbow Dash finally smiled. Fluttershy was talking about their home and the future, it seemed like such a good sign.

AppleJack visited for around a half-an-hour before deciding to give her a rest when a nurse brought in her second serving of water and juice. As she left she saw Dr. Seaweed talking to Dr. Heartfelt, they were both nodding to each other. When Dr. Seaweed saw AppleJack she waved goodbye to the other doctor and trotted to catch up with the other pony.

"AppleJack," Dr. Seaweed greeted. "How did the visit go?" she got right to the point.

"Okay, I guess," AJ answered truthfully. "Fluttershy didn't want to talk about herself at all, only seemed interested in her animal friends and pony friends back in Ponyville."

"That is common, nothing to worry about," Dr. Seaweed nodded. "At least she's talking comfortably around you."

"Well, yes, you're right," AJ agreed.

"Fluttershy is probably still processing what happened to her, and truthfully she may never want to discuss what happened with you or any pony else," Dr. Seaweed knew that the Pegasus' friends already knew a lot of what had happened, but that didn't mean Fluttershy would want to discuss in detail. "And, as long as she is able to discuss it with one pony she trust, that is fine."

"She didn't want to talk about it with RD either," AppleJack pointed out.

"These things take time," the doctor reminded. "I'll be meeting with her shortly," she added.

"Ya think that's a good idea?" AppleJack questioned. "She could barely see me, and I've known her for years."

"Don't worry, I have a secret weapon," Dr. Seaweed said mysteriously.

####

The secret weapon turned out to be a therapy dog that was employed by the hospital for cases just like Fluttershy's. The pup was a large St. Bernard named Frank who had been working as a therapy dog for several years and who loved his job.

Fluttershy was out of bed, almost yanking out her IV, and on the floor playing with him within moments of him entering the room.

"Oh, aren't you a giant cutie," Fluttershy rubbed both sides of his face with her hooves, and rubbed her noses against his.

"Well, that's nice of you to say, but I'm not sure about that," Fluttershy started a conversation that Dr. Seaweed and RD could only understand half of, neither could speak in dog barks. Fluttershy hadn't even realized the doctor had entered the room yet.

"You do? Isn't that nice," Fluttershy rubbed the dog's belly when he rolled to his side.

"That sounds like an important job," Fluttershy nodded. She looked up and finally noticed the strange pony in her room and jumped back. Frank sense her change and got up to sit next to her rubbing his face against Fluttershy's.

"Hello Fluttershy, sorry to startle you. My name is Dr. Seaweed, I'm a psychologist that specialize in ponies who have gone through something traumatic," the doctor made sure to stand back from the yellow pony.

Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash, who gave her a nod encouraging her to speak up, and Frank barked something that sounded like support.

"Hi…. Hello," Fluttershy spoke to the floor.

Dr. Seaweed knelt down so she was eye level with the shy pony, and waited a few minutes for Fluttershy to calm down and to allow Frank to do his job. He barked something at her and she shook her head, no, and he rolled over encouraging her to pet his belly. Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably in her seat; she had no idea what she should be doing.

Fluttershy spoke first, "I don't want to talk about it."

"No pony is going to make you do anything you don't want to do," Dr. Seaweed calmly stated.

Fluttershy still would not look at her.

"How about I tell you about myself?" she questioned. This was a common way to make ponies more comfortable around her. She hadn't asked Rainbow Dash to leave for either, because she was a safety net for the shy pony.

Fluttershy gave the doctor a small nod, not wanting to be rude.

"I grew up in Canterlot," the unicorn started. "I have two older sisters and a younger brother; one of my sisters works for the royal guard, my other sister is raising two adorable colts, and my brother is a magic specialist for the Canterlot palace. We are pretty close and all try and get together a couple of times a year, and stay in touch via letters. My sister actually just sent me a picture of my nephews after they'd somehow managed to use their magic to get a cup of sugar cubes off the counter," Dr. Seaweed chucked at the memory.

"I'm also very close to my parents who both still live in Canterlot, though they are both retired now. My father use to be in the royal guard, and still helps with training now and then, and my mother was a teacher at Princess Celestia's magic school. Everyone in my family attended the princess's school but me. You see, everyone in my family has strong magical abilities; except for me. I do have some magic, but it is very hard for me to use it, and when I do it is nothing more then maybe picking up a pen," Dr. Seaweed paused letting this information sink in. Fluttershy looked up from the floor with a sympathetic look.

"I had a very hard time coming to terms with this when I was younger. I felt like I was a disappointment to my parents, and I was always trying to live up to what my sisters and brother were doing. In school I was often picked for being the worst at all our magic classes, and when I finally got my cutie mark," she motioned at the simple red heart on her side. "The other ponies made fun how un-magical it was."

"That's awful," Fluttershy whispered. Rainbow Dash knew she must be thinking about her own childhood; where she was bullied horribly for her poor flying skills.

"It was not pleasant," Dr. Seaweed agreed. "However, once I learned that my special talent was helping other ponies, and I started studying to become a doctor it became a lot better. I became more comfortable with myself, and my abilities, and this helped me become the pony I am now."

Fluttershy nodded at her, genuinely happy for her.

"And, that is my special talent, helping other ponies after something really bad happens to them. I can't change what happened, but I can help ponies recover and move on. Do you understand?" she questioned.

Fluttershy nodded, not saying anything.

"Now, I have one questioned I have to ask you today, and then if you'd like we can be done, or we can talk some more, but before I ask that questioned, I have to ask, do you want Rainbow Dash in the room as we talk, or would you like her to step into the hallway?" Dr. Seaweed knew that was technically two questions, but ignored that. Frank had curled up next to Fluttershy and she was gently petting his head.

"Um," Fluttershy wasn't sure. "She can stay, if that's okay with both of you," she didn't want to be alone with this other pony she barely knew.

"Of course it's okay," Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to physically comfort her lover like she normally would in this kind of situation.

"The questioned I have to ask is; why did you drink that cleaning solution?" Dr. Seaweed had to know if Fluttershy was suicidal.

"Oh, I don't know…" Fluttershy trailed off, looking at the floor again.

"Did you want to hurt yourself?" Dr. Seaweed tried another question.

"Oh goodness, no," Fluttershy shook her head.

"Did you do it to make the pain go away?" the doctor questioned.

Fluttershy shook her head again.

"Then why did you drink it?" Dr. Seaweed didn't want to push, but she had to with this.

"I just wanted to be clean…" Fluttershy had tears forming in her eyes, it was hard to explain her reasoning.

"Okay," Dr. Seaweed was careful not to react to the information. "If you could, would you do it again?"

Fluttershy still said nothing but shook her head, no.

"Why wouldn't you do it again?"

"I made every pony so upset; I hurt them, and it wasn't fair to them, and now I've been away from my animal friends for so long that I'm sure they miss me terribly." Fluttershy wondered when they'd let her leave the hospital, she really did want to go home.

"Okay, that is good," Dr. Seaweed was relieved that her patient was not suicidal. "If you ever do feel like you'd do that again it is very important that you tell some pony okay?"

Fluttershy nodded her head, yes, but she knew she'd never do anything so foolish ever again.

After the doctor had gotten her answer she decided to take her leave, Fluttershy was obviously not in the mood for talking. As she and Frank left she at least got the shy pony to agree to meet with her again. Frank barked something at her, and she nodded her head yes in response.

Rainbow Dash watched the doctor and dog leave, and then looked back to her fiancée who was carefully getting back into bed.

"Dr. Seaweed seems pretty nice," she tried.

"Oh, yes, she does," Fluttershy didn't seem too interested. She rolled to her side, turning away from RD.

"You want to see Twi or Pinkie Pie, or Rarity?" Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do.

"Maybe later…" Shy didn't seem too sure of her answer. "I'm just going to rest now," Fluttershy yawned and closed her eyes.

"Yeah, a nap sounds good," RD agreed. It was her normal nap time anyway, and maybe sleep would help everything, probably not, but a pony could dream.


End file.
